Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1887-03-12
THE EXECUTION OF MRS. DRusE.

Inc EAE(ulkON ,ur mnS. HnoSA'
Manly instincts revolt at the ex.
ecutlon of a woman. She may be
stepped in crime to the very lips,
Borgia, in atrocities, and as heart
less as savage, but she is the weak
er vessel. Religion makes her sub
ject, and the laws of the land con-
firm its decree. She can neither
vote nor legislate. When guarran-
teed privileges by statute, they are
expressly defined, and strictly con.
strued, while man is accorded them
as matter of course. In the eye of
the law, she is dependent upon man,
and he is, to a certain extent, respon'
sible for her actions. Her virtues
are her own; her faults too often the
outcome of bad advice, vicious ex-
ample, or brutal treatment. For these
reasons, ii for no others, the MAORI.
ty of the States have tacitly acquies-
ced in the popular wish that females
should not be hanged. The execn-
tion, therefore, Of Mrs. Drnse, for
the murder of her husband, will send
q thrill of horror through the c0un.
try.
He: crime was the worst known to
the law, and was attended with pc
culiarly atrocious conditions; but
what was her provocation 7 Who
can guage the effect of years Of cow
ardly brutalitys villifed, bufieted,
beaten by day aud constantly
fearing for her life during the
dark hours of the weary night, the
disintegration of feminine instincts
was probably slow, but must have
been complete. The sneer, the curse,
the blow, did their work with deadly
precision, until their right and wrong
was merged in one absorbing passion
to revenge herself on the man who
had falsely sworn to love and cher
ish her and her children. That her
own child aided her is evidence of
the domestic hell which the husband
had created. Crazy she may not
have been, but just the insane rea.
son logically from false premises, so
she, crushed by an overwhelming
sense or wrong, may have felt that
torture, murder and butchery were
retribution for twenty years Of such
tyranny as a bad man can infiict
upon his wife. 1t is not commended
that she had a shadow of justifca-
ton for the awful crime she commit
ted; but goaded to desperation by
unbearable usage, the savage pas
sions of the brute drove ont the finer
sensibilities of theswoman. There
was ground for the interposition OF
executive clemency, and the govern
ment might have spared the country
the spectacle of woman strangled to
death by a government whose laws
she had no hand in framing.
Within ten days two men have
been tried convicted and sentencedin
New York for particularly atrocious
murders. Unger, despiring Of swind.
ling his victim of his hard earned
savings, butchered him in the most
inhuman fashion. A policeman, with
political backing, assassinated his
superior officer in a treacherous
and cowardly manner for reporting
his repeated breaches of the rule.
Unger goes to penitentiary for twen-
ty years, with the chances OF release
in a much shorter time If he behaves
himself, while the policeman will
probably be discharged 10 a few
months, thanks to his political ser
vices. A woman by this same law
is throttled Her motive for COM
hitting crime, improper though it
may have been, was not as bad as
those which actuated the men. She
had, at least, bitter, burning wrongs
to plead in extenuation, while they
had for their excuse the vilest pas
sions that can influence the mind.
Such glazing contrasts must react
and bring into contempt the admin.
istration Of the law. The sole end
of punishment is prevention. II "A
term of imprisonment will stay the
hands of male rufIians, why should
it be less effacious for the reforming
Of women.-AmeYicdn.
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